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Crown, Family & Horses. She takes seriously her task of being Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Queen of Canada, Queen of Australia, New Zealand, Ceylon, Ghana and South Africa—and in manner she grows increasingly queenly. Not long ago a palace official who has known her since childhood leaned his arm on a mantel in Her Majesty's presence. "Are you tired?" she asked. He replied: "No, ma'am. Why?" Said Elizabeth: "Because I think you should stand up straight when you are talking to me." She runs her royal household strictly—and with a clear awareness of the consequences of her acts. Last week she chose a new equerry: Ghana's Major Joseph Edward Michel, 52, the first Negro ever to join royal inner circles.
Elizabeth is often separated from her husband, Prince Philip. In paying his own Commonwealth calls, he has circumnavigated the globe three times. Her ten-year-old son, Prince Charles (who many of her subjects wish would get his hair cut), is usually at boarding school; her eight-year-old daughter, Princess Anne (who some critics claim is spoiled), is ordinarily seen by the Queen but twice a day.
The Queen's consuming passion, outside the Crown and her family, is horses. On a recent visit to the university city of Cambridge, she said: "I am so glad to be here. I have passed through so often on my journey to the Newmarket races." The Queen also referees bicycle polo, a game that Prince Philip devised and, popularized for their children. "Do hit it, Anne!" the Queen cries. Elizabeth likes to sit with Philip in the evenings and watch television—at Buckingham Palace, TV is specially piped in to eliminate the static caused by London's rush-hour traffic.
Monarch of Canada. In Washington, when Press Secretary James Hagerty recently told reporters that arrangements for the St. Lawrence Seaway dedication were being handled by the Canadian, British and U.S. governments, Canadians indignantly asked what the devil the British government had to do with it. Elizabeth is visiting their shores as Queen of Canada, and nothing else. For most of them the event is joyful and important. Sudbury, Ont. has been torn for weeks over whether or not the Queen's route should take her past the old people's home. A note of outrage was sounded in the Montreal Gazette when an indignant royalist reader protested against Canada's No. 1 hit song, The Battle of New Orleans, a catchy Tin Pan Alley jape about the rout of the British in the War of 1812: "I do suggest that this song be removed from the radio before Her Majesty's visit; otherwise she may get the impression that we are sadly lacking in manners."
There are also some dissenters. A Windsor, Ont. construction worker grumbled, "If I went to Europe, she wouldn't pay attention to me, so I'm not going out of my way to see her." Canada's prettiest TV star, blonde Joyce Davidson, appearing on television in New York last week, said that "like most Canadians, I'm indifferent to the visit of the Queen." Furious phone calls jammed the switchboards of Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Joyce's employer. Returning home, Joyce announced that she was taking an indefinite leave of absence from her job because of the "ferocity" of the criticism.